Fiji’s very own Nazhat Shameem Khan is in the running to be elected as the next Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

She is vying for this top post alongside five other shortlisted candidates.

Like the judges of the Court, the Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor are elected by the Assembly of State Parties (ASP) for a non-renewable term of nine years.

The current Prosecutor is Karim A. A. Khan QC from the United Kingdom, and his Deputy is James Stewart from Canada, whose term ends on March 8, 2022.

Prosecutor Karim Khan QC presented two lists of candidates to the President of the ASP to the Rome Statute Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi.

The ASP will then select two deputies: one for investigations and one for prosecutions.

The other five candidates are; Sylvia Domaradzki, Paolina Massida, Mame Mandiaye Niang, Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey and Alex Whiting.

Nazhat Shameem Khan

Ms Khan has more than 30 years of experience in criminal law and is currently the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.

Since May 2014, she has been Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, and Vienna, Austria, and ambassador to Switzerland.

She lists a number of firsts in her résumé as the first woman in Fiji to be appointed a State Prosecutor, first woman to become the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the first woman to be appointed a High Court judge.

Prior to her diplomatic appointment, she was a private legal practitioner and legal consultant in Fiji, operating as Nazhat Shameem Consultant since May 2009.

She served as a prosecutor for 16 years.

She was appointed DPP in 1994 and High Court judge in 1999, a position she held until 2009.

She has experience in prosecuting and trying sexual and gender-based crimes, as well as offences against children.

As the DPP, she created the Sexual and Gender-Based Crime Unit in the Office of the DPP.

In addition, she led the implementation of innovative and child-friendly initiatives in the criminal justice system as the chairperson of the Children’s Coordinating Committee of Fiji, which was set up to implement the Convention of the Rights of the Child in national laws and policies.

“In my capacity as DPP I led transformative practices which resulted in the removal of unequal and discriminatory practices in the workplace, thus enhancing the quality of professional opportunities for women prosecutors and for prosecutors who experienced intersectional forms of discrimination,” Ms Khan says.

“I have played a leadership role in designing and implementing sexual harassment policies for law offices and the civil service, in Fiji.”

During her time in private practice between 2009 and 2014, she conducted legal and corporate training for lawyers, judges, and the business community – including Fiji Sun – on human rights, corporate and good governance, and law and procedure.

Her ambassadorial duties at the UN include providing advice to the Fijian Government and its agencies on human rights commitments and implementing human rights conventions and protocols in accordance with international obligations.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in Law from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge, and a Master of Philosophy in Criminology from the University of Cambridge.

She was called to the Bar as Barrister of England and Wales of Inner Temple in July 1983.

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